Abdel Kader Haidara gave up a business career to spend his life gathering and preserving the centuries-old manuscripts of northern Mali – and them risked life and limb to save them when Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb invaded Timbuktu in 2012.

“The report notes that 7.8 percent of California’s gross state product is directly attributable to the creative industries, with an impact of more than $270 billion annually. The creative economy employs some 1.4 million people, either directly or indirectly.”